is there enough to

FIX THE DAMN STREET LIGHT THAT'S BEEN OUT FOR WELL OVER TWO YEARS???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

by the way, there are a TON of lights out in town. i go to work VERY early in the morning and i know for a fact.

West Hartford Tax Collections Exceed Expectations
By BILL LEUKHARDT The Hartford Courant

WEST HARTFORD — - The harsh recession that began throttling the economy last fall did not have the anticipated negative effect on town tax collections in the 2008-09 fiscal year, interim Town Manager Ronald Van Winkle said Friday.

The town collected 99.1 percent of taxes for that year, better than the conservative 98.9 percent collection rate expected. That's about $700,000 more than the $177.6 million budgeted, he said.............

thursday humor

the headline says it all here:
West Hartford Taxpayers Catch A Break
By BILL LEUKHARDT


yeah, it says it all but i'm still going to put my two cents in. catch a break my big fat ass. who the hell are they kidding. there are NO breaks in west hartford. also, i keep reminding everyone (who seems to have forgotten this part), black and blue square was absolutely positively going to save the good citizens of west hartford. it was going to cut our taxes (remember how the town put up a bunch o' dough to help finance it?). well our taxes keep going up even though by ALL accounts black and blue square is heaven on earth (i've never been and will NEVER go. outside of taking my father to one of his doctors who happens to have an office in a building somewhere in the bowels of black and blue)

do you know what i have to say to the town of west hartford?

luuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccccccccyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy you have some 'splainin' to do!!!

yesterday my sister pointed out to me some spray painted writing in the road. it was done either friday or yesterday morning. it says 'raised island' or something similar.

i phoned the town this morning and spoke to a VERY nice man. turns out they ARE going to put FOUR islands on asylum avenue between steele road and trout brook. i asked why. i was told it was for traffic ease. i am going to ask the town if i can see the traffic study on this. i drive on asylum EVERY day. not just five days a week EVERY day. between steele and trout brook. the ONLY thing that even resembled any kind of 'traffic study' was one of those light up signs that tells you how fast (i.e. how many miles OVER the speed limit) you're going. that was only there for a few days. i sure hope that wasn't their 'study'. there was NOTHING else. nada. zip. well nothing i'm aware of. that's why the town is getting ANOTHER call from me tomorrow. i'm going to ask to review that traffic study.

• i asked WHO was going to pay for these traffic islands since the town is on a budget. well i guess it's in the budget. who knows? i didn't get a real answer. that was NOT the fault of the person i spoke to mind you. he was as helpful as he could be. nice too. how the heck are we going to fund these traffic islands (which NO ONE i talked to who lives in the area is aware of. they were actually SHOCKED about it) when we're on a WICKED TIGHT BUDGET. taxes are up and the citizenry is up in arms over that. (well not the taxes so much as the assessments. it all boils down to we're getting our asses nailed)
• they did mail letters out (smartly so i think. they knew EXACTLY what they were doing) telling us the gas company was going to be doing some road construction. what they forgot to add was, THEY WERE GOING TO BE DOING SOME CONSTRUCTING OF THEIR OWN ONCE CNG WAS DONE. so west hartford, you weren't going to TELL US about the islands? we were supposed to wake up one morning and see them? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
  

there is NO NEED for those traffic islands on asylum between trout brook and steele road. the construction done a couple of years ago (adding those two lanes on either side of the street. for parking and what not) did the trick. not much speeding (unless it's 2 am - then everything goes). it does get rather congested in the evening rush hour though. how would traffic islands ALLEVIATE THAT? (answer=they wouldn't)

expect my call in the morning

anybody else read this in the hartford advocate this week?

why am i NOT surprised the school board in MY town, west hartford, had stuff to HIDE?
why am i NOT surprised our taxes are going through the roof and they ARE INDEED EATING CAKE?
is anyone else as disturbed as i am?

Let Them Eat Cake
How much tax money does West Hartford's Board of Education spend on catered meals for itself? They won't tell us.
By Jennifer Abel
The current West Hartford school budget is close to $118 million, about $11,670 per student. According to the CIA World Factbook, this is more than the per capita income of 141 of Earth's 230 nations.
According to the board of education it's still not enough to teach the kids, so they're requesting an extra $7.5 million next year.
There's already grumbling in town about how taxes, once again, are rising higher than inflation. And since the school budget is over 60 percent of the town's total, much of that grumbling's directed toward school spending. It's mostly off-the-record, though, because people who speak against school spending are branded as selfish.
The budget's not presented in a line-item form that lists individual expenses. So when we first heard complaints about the board allegedly having breakfasts and lunches catered to meetings on the taxpayers' dime, we didn't know if this was a big deal or not because we couldn't go to the budget and read "Refreshments: X dollars."
Are we talking "coffee and donuts" or "five-course banquets"? A woman at the Avon Board of Ed. said she usually makes coffee for meetings; Simsbury said they'll provide a meal if they are scheduled back-to-back during the dinner hour. This sounds reasonable; is that what West Hartford's doing?...............